Poll Data Show Continued Support for Bush

These USA Today/CNN poll data are very interesting.
President Bush’s job approval rating continues high at 64%. The poll also includes a question I don’t recall seeing before, about how much the respondent likes President Bush. A strong plurality, 40%, like him “a lot.” Twenty-eight percent more like him “a little.” Twenty-nine percent dislike Bush either a little or a lot, and 2% “hate” him.
By a 47% to 43% margin, respondents say the recent tax cut was a good idea rather than a bad idea. Here’s what is interesting about that: by a 56% to 35% margin, respondents say–incorrectly–that the tax cut won’t help their family’s situation. Which leads me to expect that when tax refund checks start arriving in the mail and paychecks get bigger in July, support for the tax cut will grow.
On the issues that have dominated the news in recent days, 70% say things are going either very well or moderately well in Iraq. And, by a 67% to 31% margin, respondents reject the claim that the Administration misled the public about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. It remains to be seen whether this reflects the general good sense of the American people, or the possibility that the recent deluge of publicity on this topic hasn’t yet sunk in.